A Florida woman was arrested after allegedly posing as a nurse and treating thousands of patients with another nurse’s license, authorities said.
Autumn Bardisa, age 29, from Palm Coast, faced accusations of operating as an unlicensed health care professional, with seven counts of fraudulent personal identification usage related to the alleged scheme, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office report on Wednesday.
The sheriff’s office explained that after Bardisa had worked at ventHealth Palm Coast Parkway Hospital for almost two years, a colleague uncovered that she was not actually licensed to practice as a nurse when she received a promotion earlier this year.
While employed at the hospital, Bardisa provided “medical services” to 4,486 patients between June 2024 and January 2025 without ever having a valid nursing license, according to the sheriff’s office statement.
Bardisa was hired by ventHealth on July 3, 2023, as an advanced nurse tech, who works under the direct supervision of a registered nurse.
Upon applying for the position, she reportedly stated she was an “education first” registered nurse, indicating she had completed the required education to become a registered nurse but had yet to pass the national licensing exam.
During the recruitment process, Bardisa informed the hospital of her claimed exam success and provided a license number that matched her first name, Autumn, yet had a different surname, according to the sheriff’s office.
She allegedly explained the inconsistency by stating she had recently married and adopted a new last name. However, when the hospital requested her marriage license for verification, she never furnished it, said the sheriff’s office.
The name and license number she provided, however, belonged to another nurse, also named Autumn, who ventHealth employed at a different hospital, the sheriff’s office said.
Bardisa then went on to work at the hospital without scrutiny. In January this year, she was offered a promotion.
The promotion “sparked interest” among her colleagues, the sheriff’s office said. A fellow employee checked the status of her license at that time and found “she had an expired certified nursing assistant license, which the employee reported to administrators,” the sheriff’s office said.
ventHealth then opened an investigation into the claim and found Bardisa never provided her marriage license to confirm her identity, the sheriff’s office said.
Bardisa was terminated Jan. 22 “after she failed to confirm her identity,” the sheriff’s office said. ventHealth then contacted the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office to conduct a criminal investigation.
The probe took seven months, in conjunction with the Florida Department of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and included interviews with the nurse whose identity Bardisa allegedly stole.
The two shared the same first name and had attended the same college, but the other Autumn said they did not personally know each other, the sheriff’s office said. The Autumn, whose identity Bardisa stole, said ventHealth told her about the alleged fraud in January.
An arrest warrant for Bardisa was issued Aug. 5 and she was arrested at her home. Video footage of her arrest showed officers confronting her as she was in her car, wearing blue scrubs, the sheriff’s office said.
Sheriff Rick Staly called the arrest “one of the most disturbing cases of medical fraud we’ve ever investigated.”
“This woman potentially put thousands of lives at risk by pretending to be someone she was not and violating the trust of patients, their families, ventHealth and an entire medical community,” Staly continued.
The charging affidavit in the case said ventHealth “failed to immediately identify that Autumn had never uploaded the marriage license” and of “oversight on the discrepancies” in Bardisa’s employee information.
ventHealth said it does not comment on pending legal matters or personnel matters.
Bardisa remained in custody as of Thursday morning, where she was being held on $70,00 bond. It was not immediately clear if she had retained an attorney, and her arraignment was set for Sept. 2.
